Lapwing emerged from Belfasts Poetry Collective, and
for nearly twenty years has operated as a non-profit publisher of poetry in
small editions. Initially Lapwing was founded to serve the immediate needs of
new and emerging poets from Northern Ireland, but it soon became apparent that
the same need applied in the Republic of Ireland, and extended to writers of
Northern and Southern Ireland birth living in other parts of the world. Lapwing
also publishes writers who have made their home in Ireland, and also,
occasionally, writers with no particular claim to citizenship or residence in
Ireland.

Over the years, Lapwing has published a number of
Irelands best known authors, including: